Airlifted from Saigon as an 11-month-old baby, Odile Dussart is now back to living in the land of her birth hoping to find her biological mother.

Dussart was one of more than 3,000 children part of Operation Babylift. Removed by the United States at the end of the Vietnam War, they were eventually adopted by families across North America, Europe and Australia.

The stories of the evacuees and others involved illustrate the way the conflict still resonates 50 years later.

The very first flight of the controversial mass evacuation -- with Dussart among 314 people on board -- crashed minutes after take-off from Saigon.

One of the 176 survivors, she was adopted by a couple in France. Now 51, she has returned to seek her Vietnamese family.

"I just want to know if my biological mother is alive or dead... I want to know her story," she told AFP at her newly rented home overlooking the rice fields of Hoi An, where the ancient city centre is listed by UNESCO.

"Maybe it's impossible to find her. But I have hope."

The communists of........

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